Threat Matrix: Daily Terror Threat

Amen to that, my FRiend!

More about the "AlQaeda Diving Team's" radical Dutch Mosque

http://www.cidi.nl/news/2003/150403b.html
A Saudi Group Spreads Extremism In 'Law' Seminars, Taught in Dutch Searching for Roots of 9/11, Europeans Find 6 Plotters Took Course in Holland

Note the Saudi, Morrocan, Spain and 9/11 connections

We love life, they love death
Pray for our troups
God Bless America

Good to have you here. I'm extremely impressed with you for having read all of the first four threads. Sounds like you are uniquely qualified to take over my self-appointed position of offering periodic summaries!

Prayers for a speedy recovery. Hang in there!

NATO Umbrella Could Keep Spanish Troops in Iraq
Tue Mar 16, 2004 09:25 AM ET
By John Chalmers

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A U.N.-mandated NATO presence in Iraq could be a face-saving formula for Spain's incoming Socialist prime minister as allies put pressure on him not to withdraw troops from the country, diplomats said Tuesday.

Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has said he will probably withdraw Spain's 1,300 troops, who are a key component of the 9,000-strong multinational stabilization force in Iraq's central-south division.

This would be a major setback for the United States, which wants NATO to take command of this division some time after sovereignty is returned to the Iraqi people on June 30. Even France and Germany, Europe's fiercest critics of the Iraq war, had backed away from challenging Washington's ambition.....

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=4578197

Terrorist Attack on London 'Is Inevitable'

By Brian Walker, London Editor
16 March 2004

A TERRORIST attack on London could be inevitable, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens said today.

Police and the security services have dramatically increased their efforts and are "working three times harder than ever" to foil any terrorist plot.

London Mayor Ken Livingstone told a City Hall press conference that it would be "miraculous" if the capital was not attacked.

Sir John said: "Since September 11 there have been 520 arrests, half have been charged with an offence and there are 90 about to go through to court.

"We do know that we have actually stopped terrorist attacks happening in London but, as the Prime Minister and Home Secretary have said, there is an inevitability that some sort of attack will get through but my job is to make sure that does not happen."

An extra 680 officers have been drafted in for the anti-terrorist operation and a budget of £52m for 2004/2005 was expected for the Metropolitan Police. London remains on a high state of alert and everyone needs to be vigilant, said Sir John.

He went on: "We are not talking about the Tube and the rail system. We are talking about London generally.
"We are talking about buses, anything seen of suspicion in clubs. This is a general request to be alert."

Sir John's comments came amid mounting evidence that Islamic extremists with links to al-Qaida were behind last week's Madrid bombings which left more than 200 dead.
The terrorists behind the attack may also be linked an attack in Casablanca in Morocco, last year that killed 45 people including suicide bombers.

One of five suspects being held by Spanish police in connection with Thursday's attack in Spain had travelled to Morocco, then left on April 20, 2003 - just before the May 16 attacks in Casablanca, according to officials in Morocco. The suspect, Jamal Zougam, also has al-Qaida connections that lead to a suspect in the Casablanca attacks and possibly to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a key operative working with Osama bin Laden's network who has been blamed in attacks in Jordan and elsewhere.

Sir John Stevens urged the public not to panic and to go about their normal lives, adding: "A major catastrophe in London will not be easy to handle. None of them are but we have major experience over the last 32 years and we will take action."

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=501848

QUOTATION OF THE DAY

"Spain is going to see eye to eye with Europe again."
José Zapatero, prime minister-elect of Spain.

Ironically Apr. 19th is Patriots day to celebrate Paul Reveres ride.

Paul Revere's Ride
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.
He said to his friend, "If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light,--
One if by land, and two if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm."

Then he said "Good-night!" and with muffled oar
Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore,
Just as the moon rose over the bay,
Where swinging wide at her moorings lay
The Somerset, British man-of-war;
A phantom ship, with each mast and spar
Across the moon like a prison bar,
And a huge black hulk, that was magnified
By its own reflection in the tide.

Meanwhile, his friend through alley and street
Wanders and watches, with eager ears,
Till in the silence around him he hears
The muster of men at the barrack door,
The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet,
And the measured tread of the grenadiers,
Marching down to their boats on the shore.

Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church,
By the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread,
To the belfry chamber overhead,
And startled the pigeons from their perch
On the sombre rafters, that round him made
Masses and moving shapes of shade,--
By the trembling ladder, steep and tall,
To the highest window in the wall,
Where he paused to listen and look down
A moment on the roofs of the town
And the moonlight flowing over all.

Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead,
In their night encampment on the hill,
Wrapped in silence so deep and still
That he could hear, like a sentinel's tread,
The watchful night-wind, as it went
Creeping along from tent to tent,
And seeming to whisper, "All is well!"
A moment only he feels the spell
Of the place and the hour, and the secret dread
Of the lonely belfry and the dead;
For suddenly all his thoughts are bent
On a shadowy something far away,
Where the river widens to meet the bay,--
A line of black that bends and floats
On the rising tide like a bridge of boats.

Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride,
Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride
On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere.
Now he patted his horse's side,
Now he gazed at the landscape far and near,
Then, impetuous, stamped the earth,
And turned and tightened his saddle girth;
But mostly he watched with eager search
The belfry tower of the Old North Church,
As it rose above the graves on the hill,
Lonely and spectral and sombre and still.
And lo! as he looks, on the belfry's height
A glimmer, and then a gleam of light!
He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns,
But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight
A second lamp in the belfry burns.

A hurry of hoofs in a village street,
A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,
And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark
Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet;
That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light,
The fate of a nation was riding that night;
And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight,
Kindled the land into flame with its heat.
He has left the village and mounted the steep,
And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep,
Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides;
And under the alders that skirt its edge,
Now soft on the sand, now loud on the ledge,
Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides.

It was twelve by the village clock
When he crossed the bridge into Medford town.
He heard the crowing of the cock,
And the barking of the farmer's dog,
And felt the damp of the river fog,
That rises after the sun goes down.

It was one by the village clock,
When he galloped into Lexington.
He saw the gilded weathercock
Swim in the moonlight as he passed,
And the meeting-house windows, black and bare,
Gaze at him with a spectral glare,
As if they already stood aghast
At the bloody work they would look upon.

It was two by the village clock,
When he came to the bridge in Concord town.
He heard the bleating of the flock,
And the twitter of birds among the trees,
And felt the breath of the morning breeze
Blowing over the meadow brown.
And one was safe and asleep in his bed
Who at the bridge would be first to fall,
Who that day would be lying dead,
Pierced by a British musket ball.

You know the rest. In the books you have read
How the British Regulars fired and fled,---
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
>From behind each fence and farmyard wall,
Chasing the redcoats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And only pausing to fire and load.

So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm,---
A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo for evermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.

A Black Wind in Austrailia of sorts - Locusts.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3516132.stm

"In a few days, we will see locusts that will just black the sun out," he told ABC television. "There won't be a green thing, they'll even eat the clothes off the washing line."

Can these thing be cultured and released on a nation in any kind of numbers? Sounds corny, but just curious.

Ex-U.N. Inspector Has Harsh Words for Bush
By WARREN HOGE

Published: March 16, 2004

UNITED NATIONS, March 15 — Hans Blix, the former chief United Nations weapons inspector, said Monday that the Bush administration convinced itself of the existence of banned weapons based on dubious findings before invading Iraq and was not interested in hearing evidence to the contrary.

"I think they had a set mind," Mr. Blix said on the NBC News program "Today" as he began a ten-day American book tour in the week marking the first anniversary of the United States-led invasion of Iraq.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/16/international/middleeast/16BLIX.html?th

Pakistani's Nuclear Earnings: $100 Million
By DAVID E. SANGER and WILLIAM J. BROAD

Published: March 16, 2004

Doug Mills/The New York Times
High-speed centrifuges from Libya on display yesterday at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.

OAK RIDGE, Tenn., March 15 — The Bush administration said Monday that the clandestine network created by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani nuclear scientist, netted $100 million for the technology it sold to Libya alone, and for the first time officials displayed a carefully selected sample of the type of equipment that the network sold to arm Libya, Iran and North Korea.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/16/international/asia/16NUKE.html?th

U.S. to Expand Testing of Cattle for Disease
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: March 16, 2004

WASHINGTON, March 16 (AP) — The Agriculture Department will expand its testing for mad cow disease after the single United States case in December rose to more than 221,000 animals, 10 times the number tested last year, officials said Monday.

The tests will include 201,000 animals considered to be at high risk of the disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, because they show symptoms of nervous system disorders, like twitching.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/16/national/16COW.html?th

For those of us who are thinking about bible verses...well this is just one more event in the course of current events.

Periodical Cicadas to Emerge in May

Fri Mar 12, 1:24 PM ET
By DAN LEWERENZ, Associated Press Writer

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - After 17 years of relative quiet, Mother Nature is bringing the noise. Periodical cicadas, a species of the grasshopper-like insects best known for the scratching, screeching "singing" of the males, will emerge this May, filling forests in more than a dozen states. Almost as abruptly as they arrive, they'll disappear underground for another 17 years.

"Why do certain insects take only one year to develop, and others take two or three? It's just part of their genetic programming," said Greg Hoover, senior extension entomologist for Penn State University.

There are at least 13 broods of 17-year cicadas, plus another five broods that emerge every 13 years. The last to emerge, Brood IX, was seen last spring in parts of West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina.

This year, it's time for Brood X, the so-called "Big Brood," to surface. Its range stretches from Georgia, west through Tennessee and to isolated pockets of Missouri, north along the Ohio Valley and into Michigan, and east into New Jersey and New York.

"This is one of those years we kind of dread," said Paris Lambdin, professor of entomology and plant pathology at the University of Tennessee. "We had an emergence a couple years ago around Nashville, but nothing like what we expect this one will be."

No other periodical cicada covers so much ground. And with hundreds of them per acre in infested areas, the noise will be hard to miss.

"In 1987, coming back from the University of Maryland on Interstate 95, when you drove through a wooded area you could hear the insects," Hoover said. "This would have been mid to late June, with the windows down, and then it would shut down when you got to a field or a non-wooded area."
In rare years, a 13-year brood can emerge to add its collective voice to that of a 17-year brood.

"Out in the Midwest is where things get really hairy," Hoover said. "Missouri, Illinois, Indiana have combinations of 17-year-brooded individuals and 13-year-brooded individuals, and they can have overlap."

There's no question that the class of 2004 will be a nuisance. The cicadas will make plenty of noise, and adults are poor fliers that tend to bump into things.
But as swarms go, these cicadas aren't that bad. Adults don't feed on leaves, so they won't strip the trees, but they do lay their eggs in twigs.

"The females, once mated, will lay pockets of eggs along twigs that will cause structural weakening of those twigs," Hoover said. "Eventually they may drop off and fall to the ground, the nymphs will drop off and fall to the soil, and that's where this species is for the next 17 years."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&e=4&u=/ap/cicadas_return

Breaking News Alert
MADRID, Spain (AP) Police announce arrest of Algerian who allegedly spoke about Madrid attacks two months ago.

_________________________________________________________

Police identify Spain 'bombers'
Tuesday, March 16, 2004 Posted: 9:09 AM EST

MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Spanish authorities believe they have the names of at least six and perhaps as many as eight Moroccans who carried bombs onto Spanish commuter trains last Thursday, killing 201 people.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/03/16/spain.invest/index.html

Japan plans major defense review
Monday, March 15, 2004
In a controversial move, Japanese troops are now operating in Iraq.

TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) -- Keen to boost its military capabilities and global security profile, Japan is undertaking the most drastic review of its forces in five decades -- a move analysts say will involve both pain and gain for domestic firms.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/03/15/Japan.defense.reut/index.html

Former Marine killed while helping rebuild Iraq
Monday, March 15, 2004

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (AP) -- Robert Zangas believed so deeply in helping to rebuild Iraq that three months after coming home from a nine-month stint there in a Marine Corps Reserve unit, he decided to return -- as a civilian.

Zangas, 44, was one of three civilians killed March 9 after several gunmen posing as Iraqi police officers stopped their vehicle at a makeshift checkpoint near the town of Hillah, about 35 miles south of Baghdad.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Northeast/03/15/iraq.zangas.ap/index.html

"Sounds like you are uniquely qualified to take over my self-appointed position of offering periodic summaries!" But you're so good at it . Sorry, couldn't resist a little early morning sarcasm. I'll be moving soon and won't have access to my computer. Given the rate posts pop up on these threads, I'll probably return only to have catch up on another 4 threads.

It sure isn't any "Peace" talks

Okey Doke Welcome Bump ;)

Oh my what a great idea! You should see unorganized me always writing down the last post I read on paper I could never find the next day!

The governor of Nablus, Mahmoud Al-Alul, condemned the use of a 10 year old boy to carry out an attack "It is a despicable crime that no sane person could ever imagine", said Al- Alul.

But it made perfect sense to a bunch of [censored]...

Does that mean all basketball player's are leftists because every thing they have looks distorted

Apparently my computer isn't fond of paragraphs this morning.